Maharaja Yadavinder Singh

LIEUTENANT
GENERAL MAHARAJA YADAVINDER SINGH (1913-1974) was a
Grand Commander of the Indian Empire (as picked by all the princes of India),
Companion of the British Empire,
Doctor of Laws from Banaras and Panjab Universities, was the last
hereditary ruler of the erstwhile Indian princely state of Patiala.
Born on 7 January 1913 during the high noon of the British rag he
lived to see India become an independent democratic republic. He
was the premier ruling prince in the Punjab. Prominent in sports,
courageous in war, persuasive in diplomacy, knowledgeable in botany
and agriculture, he was perhaps modern India's nearest equivalent
to the ideal renaissance man.

Yadavinder Singh's early life was moulded by his rank and
environment. Son of Maharaja Bhupinder Singh, one of the most
prominent of India's 600-odd reigning princes, Yadavinder Singh was
brought up in a luxurious atmosphere. At the suggestion of the
local British resident, Bhupinder Singh sent his son, while
still a young boy, to the Aitchison College at Lahore. There
he received a solid all-round education, acquired valuable habits
of inquiry and self-discipline, and distinguished himself on
the cricket field. In 1930, after completing his education, he
accompanied his father to the first Round Table Conference in
London. He spent some time at the Punjab Police School, Phillaur,
and acquired some training in revenue work back in Patiala. At
his rnajority, in 1931, he was made Superintendent of Police
for Patiala district, graduating two years later to the rank of
Inspector-General. In 1933, he was appointed the Chancellor
of Khalsa College, Amritsar, and he held this position for a
number of years. Seconded in 1935 to a
crack Sikh unit of the Indian army, he did valuable work
helping in reconstruction after the terrible Quetta earthquake
and earned a glowing tribute from the military authorities.

Yadavinder Singh's public activities were, however,
overshadowed by his sporting achievements. Patiala had always
been synonymous with Indian cricket boasting at Chail, the
Maharaja's summer residence, the highest ground in the world.
Encouraged to play the game by his father, who had captained
India on the tour of England, Yadavinder Singh rapidly blossomed
into a fine all-round player. He donned Indian colours in
1934 when he was selected to play against England. However,
cricket was far from his only athletic accomplishment.
Supple of limb and reaching almost 6'5" when fully grown,
he had no difficulty adapting successfully to a variety of
games: he climbed, ran, played hockey, was north Indian
tennis champion, and led the Patiala polo tearn. In his
devotion to sport, he had followed in the footsteps of
his father. In 1928, Bhupinder Singh had been elected
founder-president of Indian Olympic Association, formed
after India had won its first gold medal in the hockey
competition at the IXth Olympiad in Amsterdam. On
Bhupinder Singh's death in 1938, the members of the
Association chose the son to replace the father. Yadavinder
Singh continued as president until 1960, when he stepped
down in favour of his brother, Bhalendra Singh. During
his 22-year term, he cemented India's connection with the
international olyrnpic movement, fostered the establishment
of branches of the Association in several provinces and
encouraged the formation of national federations for
individual Olympic sports.

1938 was indeed a momentous year for the young
prince. It was clouded, of course, by his father's death;
but on the brighter side it saw his election to the
presidency of the Olympic Association.
He became the ruler of a kingdom of 5,932 square miles having
a population of nearly two million. In the year of his
accession was also solemnized his marriage to Mohinder
Kaur, daughter of a Patiala nobleman, Harchand Singh Jeji.

On
the outbreak of the World War in 1939, Maharaja
Yadavinder Singh founded the Khalsa Defence of India League.
Sikh enlistment to the army was accelerated by the efforts
of the Maharaja who himself went to the Italian theatre
of war and to the Middle East and Malaya. His support
of the War effort was rewarded in 1944 by an honorary
appointment as Lieutenant-Colonel in the Indian army.

Viceroy
Lord Wavell, too described Yadavinder Singh as
"one of the best of the princes, really interested in
managing his state on progressive lines," caused him
to be appointed an aide-de-camp to the British King
and supported his election as pro-chancellor of the
Chamber of Princes in March 1946. The Maharaja
became a leading figure in the politics of the
Indian princes. When after the failure of the Cripps
Mission in 1942, the British Government sent to India
the Cabinet Mission under the leadership of Lord
Petllick-Lawrence, the Maharaja of Patiala led a
princes' delegation to the Mission. He was also a member
of the negotiations committee of the princes which,
under the Cabinet Mission Plan, was to negotiate with
the representatives of British India the terms on which
the states would accede to the Indian Union. Patiala was
also one of the first princely states to decide on 13
March 1947 to participate in the Constituent Assembly
and to send up its representatives as members. On 1
August 1947, twenty-two members of states, with Maharaja
Yadavinder Singh leading, signified their decision to
accede to the Indian Union and others followed in quick
succession. In May 1948 he gave his assent to the merger
of Patiala with seven other Punjab states to constitute
what came to be known as the Patiala and East Punjab States
Union (PEPSU).

When
the decision to partition the Punjab was announced,
Yadavidra Singh went to viceroy Mountbatten and pleaded
with him to fix the bounadary on the basis of landed and
religious property rather than population
there by
preserving the central Punjab as a Sikh homeland.
Mount batten refused, and the Radcliffe Commission opted
for a line which left many Sikhs and Sikh shrines in
Pakistan. Yadavinder Singh then took his case too
Sardar Patel, urging that the rehabilitation of the
Sikhs should be made a priority of government policy.
Sikh refugees should be fully compensated for their
losses, and community as a whole assured of its
rightful place in the Polity of India through the
incorporation of suitaible provisions in the
new constitutions. In subsequent letters to the Sardar,
he enjoined the goverment to open negotiations with
Pakistan for the return of Sikh religious records
and the preservation of untended gurdwaras and
criticized curbs which New Delhi had placed on
certain Sikh newspapers. At the same time the Maharaja
maintained his direct Links with the Panth
through the patronization of schools and charities.

Towards the end of 1947 he added the presidency of
the Panthic Darbar, a quasi-political organizations to
his many other activities.

In November 1952, in accordance with the
recommendations of the States Reorganization Comission,
PEPSU was merged With East Punjab and Yadavinder
Singh, who had been Rajpramukh of toe state shack its
inception. found himself for the first time in his
adult lift without a full-time occupation. But soon
thereafter Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru sent him
to New York as a member of tlle Indian delegation to
the 11th session of the United Nations General Assembly.
In 1958, Yadavinder Singh represented India in Paris at
the 10th annual conference of UNESCO

Indian team at meetings of the UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) - a task for
which the horticulturally-knowledgeable Maharaja was well suited In 1960, the
government made him chairman of the newlycreated Intlian Council of Sports,
a body designed to oversee the whole sporting sphere and advise on the
allocation of public money to sports teams and facilities. In 1965, the Lal
Bahadur Shastri government appointed him to the prestigious post of
Indian Ambassador in Rome, where he served until 1967.

The
decade 1956-1966 was a relatively quiet and relaxed period in Yadavinder Singh's
life, much of it spent abroad. As a diplomat he shunned public forums, preferring
to exercise his considerable charm in private informal gatherings. In February
1967 elections were held for the Punjab legislature; Yadavinder Singh decided to stand
as an independent candidate, and was voted in by a handsome majority. His
short parliamentary career was over as he soon realized that he was unfit for the role
of a professional politician. He continued, however, to involve himself closely
in Sikh affairs, and in 1969 revived his role as intermediary with the Centre
in an unsuccessful bid to head off Darshan Singh Pheruman's
fast to death over status of Chandigarh. Earlier he had presided over the Sikh
Educational Conference annual sessions held at Patiala (1949), Delhi (1952) and
Indore (1961). He was also chairman of the Punjabi University Commission which
preceded the establishment in 1962 of Punjabi University at Patiala. He was chosen
president of the Guru Gobind foundation as well as Guru Nanak foundation, the former
set up to honour the tercentenary of the birth of Guru Gobind Singh (1967) and the
latter the quicentenary of the birth of Guru Nanak (1969).

Throughout the late 1969's, Yadavinder Singh continued his association with FAO
and the Council of Sports, and in 1970 took on a new role as chairman of the Indian
horticulture development council. In 1971, Yadavinder Singh took up his second and last
permanent diplomatic postings at the Hague in the Netherlands. Three years later,
on 17 June 1974, he suffered a severe heart attack and died. He was 61 years
of age. His body was flown to India and was cremated with full state honours
on 21 June at Patiala in the family crematorium, the Shahi Samadhan. His Son
Captain Amrinder Singh is also active in Sikh politics in Punjab and is currently chief minister (1999-2004).